Barratt and Lloyds create housing venture, Entain reports strong second-half trading

Stocks to watch

Barratt Developments, Homes England and Lloyds Bank have formed a joint venture that will focus on developments of large sites for housing. Each partner will invest up to £150m in the venture, to be called the MADE Partnership, focusing on multiple large scale, residential-led developments from 1,000 to more than 10,000 homes “along with a variety of community facilities and employment uses”. Potential development opportunities will include large brownfield developments, as well as new garden village style communities.

Entain reported strong second-half trading momentum in an update on Monday, with online net gaming revenue (NGR) growth exceeding expectations. The FTSE 100 gambling giant noted that new chief executive Gavin Isaacs took office on 2 September, with Stella David set to succeed Barry Gibson as chair at the end of the month. It added that BetMGM launched new features ahead of the NFL season, including enhanced parlay options and a nationwide digital wallet for Nevada bettors.

Newspaper round-up

HSBC is recruiting hundreds of bankers to serve rich clients in the UK as it looks to head off growing competition from British rivals and take a larger slice of the wealth management market. Europe’s biggest bank is hoping to fortify the UK arm of its wealth and private banking operations by bulking up its team of relationship managers, who offer bespoke services and advice to rich clients in exchange for lucrative fees. – Guardian

The UK is missing out on billions of pounds of revenue each year from small retail businesses that exploit weaknesses in government systems to evade paying tax, the public spending watchdog has warned. The National Audit Office (NAO), which monitors tax and spending by the government, said the trail of tax debts left by small retailers was widespread and increasing every year. – Guardian

Rachel Reeves has been urged to start charging capital gains tax on second homes and businesses after their owners die. Scrapping relief that wipes out capital gains tax charges on death would simultaneously drive economic growth and raise £2bn a year for the Treasury as the Chancellor scrambles to fill a £22bn budget black hole, according to the Institute for Fiscal Studies (IFS). – Telegraph

Almost 2m self-employed workers face a pensions crisis unless they urgently start to save more, the Institute for Fiscal Studies (IFS) has warned. Just 500,000 self-employed people earning more than £10,000 a year are paying into a pension at all, according to the IFS, with 1.8m failing to do so. It represents a collapse in savings rates over the past 25 years. Back in 1998, almost two-thirds of the self-employed saved into a pension. – Telegraph

Britain’s third largest supermarket chain has launched one of the biggest workplace saving schemes in the UK for its 150,000 retail workers. Asda has partnered with Wagestream, the financial benefits company, to offer its workers a 4.7 per cent AER (annual equivalent rate) workplace savings account, which is protected under the Financial Services compensation Scheme. – The Times

US close

Stocks on Wall Street closed in the red on Friday, with the Dow Jones Industrial Average down 1.01% at 40,345.41.

The S&P 500 lost 1.73% to 5,408.42, and the Nasdaq Composite slid 2.55% to end the session at 16,690.83.